John Robson: We’ve Come to Not Just Accept, but Embrace Mediocrity in Canada
Commentary
As I tweet a torrent of stories about the sorry state of Canadian governments, I do recall Ian MacLaren’s “The Cunning Speech of Drumtochty,” in which downpours only prompt the locals to say it “threatened tae be weet,” saving stronger language for Biblical deluges. So when the prime minister insists sententiously that “Canada is not broken,” I concede that we are still better governed than most of the world. But surely there’s moisture about.
Or cold. The latest such episode being yet another breakdown of the vaunted light rail in our capital city because of winter conditions that, apparently, were not foreseen. In what we used to call banana republics, or worse, tragicomic lack of competence or accountability in the public sector is to be expected. But in Canada? Yet they just dump in more money and tell us to be grateful the station doesn’t stink… if it doesn’t….